Barak pledged to triumph over Sharon despite polls that suggest the conservative Likud Party leader would crush him in a special Feb. 6 prime ministerial ballot.

“I will win this election,” he told Russian state television. “The real choice is Barak and war.”

Israelis and Palestinians remain deadlocked as President Clinton makes a last-ditch effort to revive peace talks. Since September, near-daily violent uprisings have killed nearly 350 people – most of them Palestinians.

“The continuation of the Intifada [holy war] is the only way, the only method of achieving independence,” the Palestine Liberation Organization faction declared in a statement.

The Fatah movement, which forms the backbone of the Palestinian Authority, commanded a two-week escalation of the violence, while the militant Hamas organization staged a rally in honor of a suicide bomber who blew himself up last week in an Israeli cafe.

About 2,000 Palestinians took part in the rally in Nablus, handing out sweets in celebration of 24-year-old Hisham Najar’s martyrdom.

With the proposal, Clinton is asking both sides for a trade-off. Israel would give up Arab parts of Jerusalem, while the Palestinians would concede the “right of return” for millions of refugees.

Arafat, under international pressure to approve Clinton’s proposal as a final peace pact, also faces demands at home to side with the popular uprising.

A top negotiator for Arafat in the talks told the Palestinian daily Alayam that Clinton’s proposal is “the biggest bluff in the Mideast since the First World War.”

Barak said Friday that he would not sign a deal agreeing to the right of Palestinian refugees to return or concede the Jerusalem holy site known to Jews as Temple Mount.

But he has not ruled out the possibility of international sovereignty over the sacred site.

Arab radio stations reported that Clinton called Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Friday, asking the Arab leader to pressure Arafat to accept the plan.

Meanwhile, on Israel’s northern border, Israeli troops shot and killed a Lebanese protester who they say was trying to scale a fence amid a rash of stone-throwing.

Rousing fears of a regional conflict, Iran reacted to the shooting by pledging to retaliate for any Israeli attacks on Syria or Lebanon.

Palestinian radio reported that two people had been wounded in sporadic clashes in the West Bank. The Israeli army reported just one incident near the West Bank town of Hebron, where Palestinians burned tires.